KOTA KINABALU: The government must come clean on how a private company can suddenly come up and claim it is ready to start a coal power plant in Tawau, said Sabah DAP chairman Stephen Wong.
He said Sabahans had earlier said no to a proposal for a coal powered plant and that such a proposal was now being forwarded again. He said the people had been promised a gas-fired power plant.
Speaking at a press conference yesterday, Wong said he was taken aback by the news because Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Maximus Ongkili had only mentioned about a proposed gas-fired power plant in Sandakan.
According to the Sandakan MP, Ongkili had even said on several occasions that the project would start as early as February this year.
“Not once during the parliamentary sessions, when I questioned him, did he mention anything about this lignite-based power plant which is basically a coal power plant. He only mentioned gas-fired power plant.
“Why (do we) suddenly hear about this company saying they have secured the approval and licence for the operation of a clean fuel refinery complex (CRFC) project from the international trade and industry ministry (Miti)?” he said.
He added that the company had also confidently stated it was waiting for the green light from the authorities before proceeding with the environmental impact assessment (EIA), which, he said, gave the impression that the project had been finalised.
This meant, he said, the government must have known about this proposal long before the company came out to announce it in the media.
Lignite is a type of coal usually used commercially in electricity generation. Sometimes called ‘brown coal,’ lignite is the lowest quality, and most crumbly, coal.
Burning lignite releases more carbon-dioxide than other fossil fuels, such as hard anthracite coal, natural gas, or oil.
Last week, a private energy company Afmaco Energy Bhd announced its readiness to invest RM6 billion to develop the CRFC and said it was now awaiting approval from Ongkili’s ministry and the Energy Commission as well as Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) for the purchase agreement.
The company’s chief executive officer Ahmad Faizul Mohamed Alwi claimed the project would run on proven environmentally friendly technology by employing a zero waste system, adding that the technology was from China and had been in use for over eight years.
Wong reminded Ongkili and the government that the idea of a coal power plant in Tawau had been rejected by the people back in 2011 because of the negative effects it could cause to the environment.
“We have been promised a gas-fired power plant and I hope the government will keep its promise,” he said.
The Sandakan MP said he was disturbed by the fact that the company had even identified a 180-acre area in Pasir Putih, Tawau, where it wanted to build the plant.
He lamented that it was discouraging to know that while other countries, including China, were phasing out their coal power plants, Malaysia appeared to be insistent on building one.
In 2006 when the proposal to set up a coal-fired power plant in Sabah was first mooted, it received immediate backlash from politicians, environmentalists and activists leading to its cancellation in 2008.
The RM1.3 billion power plant proposal, however, did not go away as a new location in Sandakan was later proposed. But again, it was dropped after strong opposition from the local community and environmental bodies.
Finally, Chief Minister Musa Aman announced in 2011 that the government had scrapped “once and for all” any bid to put up a coal-powered plant anywhere in Sabah in the interest of the environment.
However, the issue came to the front again four months after the 13th general election when then Energy, Green Technology and Water deputy minister Mahadzir Khaled revealed that the coal plant plan was still on the table. -FMT
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